Another key functionality of the remora package allows users to integrate acoustic telemetry data and environmental and habitat information. This package allows the user to match a range of environmental variables to each detection. Associating environmental data to detections provides a means to analyse environmental or habitat drivers of occurrence, presence and movement of animal monitored using acoustic telemetry. We advocate for users to first undertake a quality control step using the runQC() function and workflow before further analysis (see vignette('runQC')), however the functionality to append environmental data will work on any dataset that has at the minimum spatial coordinates and a timestamp for each detection event.

Currently, the focus of this package is to integrate animal telemetry data and environmental data collated by Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System. Therefore, the geographical scope of available datasets is currently restricted to the Australiasia region. As this package develops, more sources of environmental data will be added to enable users to access more datasets across Australia and globally.


Types of environmental data

This package allows users to access a range of ocean observing datasets that have undergone a quality control process and housed within the Integrated Marine Observing System. These datasets can also be explored through the Australian Ocean Data Network portal. There are primarily two types of environmental data that users can currently access:

1. Remotely-sensed or gridded environmental data

2. In situ sub-surface environmental data from moorings at fixed locations


The imos_variables() function will help the user identify currently available environmental layers that can be accessed and associated. Variables include spatial layers including bathy and dist_to_land, which provide distance measures of bathymetry (in meters) and proximity to land (in kilometers). Variable names that start with rs_ are remotely-sensed or gridded environmental layers, and variables starting with moor_ include in situ sub-surface mooring environmental layers.

library(remora)

imos_variables()
Variable Platform Temporal resolution Units Function to use Description Source
bathy Composite raster product
meters extractEnv() Australian Bathymetry and Topography Grid. 250 m resolution. Geosciences Australia
dist_to_land Raster product
kilometers extractEnv() Distance from nearest shoreline (in km). Derived from the high-resolution Open Street Map shoreline product. This package
rs_sst Satellite-derived raster product daily (2002-07-04 - present) degrees Celcius extractEnv() 1-day multi-swath multi-sensor (L3S) remotely sensed sea surface temperature (degrees Celcius) at 2 km resolution. Derived from the Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) IMOS
rs_sst_interpolated Raster product daily (2006-06-12 - present) degrees Celcius extractEnv() 1-day interpolated remotely sensed sea surface temperature (degrees Celcius) at 9 km resolution. Derived from the Regional Australian Multi-Sensor Sea surface temperature Analysis (RAMSSA, Beggs et al. 2010) system as part of the BLUElink Ocean Forecasting Australia project IMOS
rs_chl Satellite-derived raster product daily (2002-07-04 - present) mg.m-3 extractEnv() Remotely sensed chlorophyll-a concentration (OC3 model). Derived from the MODIS Aqua satellite mission. Multi-spectral measurements are used to infer the concentration of chlorophyll-a, most typically due to phytoplankton, present in the water (mg.m-3). IMOS
rs_current Composite raster product daily (1993-01-01 - present) ms-1; degrees extractEnv() Gridded (adjusted) sea level anomaly (GSLA), surface geostrophic velocity in the east-west (UCUR) and north-south (VCUR) directions for the Australasian region derived from the IMOS Ocean Current project. Two additional variables are calculated: surface current velocity (ms-1) and bearing (degrees). IMOS
rs_salinity Satellite-derived raster product weekly (2011-08-25 - 2015-06-07) psu extractEnv() 7-day composite remotely sensed salinity. Derived from the NASA Aquarius satellite mission (psu). IMOS
rs_turbidity Satellite-derived raster product daily (2002-07-04 - present) m-1 extractEnv() Diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490 nm (K490) indicates the turbidity of the water column (m-1). The value of K490 represents the rate which light at 490 nm is attenuated with depth. For example a K490 of 0.1/meter means that light intensity will be reduced one natural log within 10 meters of water. Thus, for a K490 of 0.1, one attenuation length is 10 meters. Higher K490 value means smaller attenuation depth, and lower clarity of ocean water. IMOS
rs_npp Satellite-derived raster product daily (2002-07-04 - present) mgC.m_2.day-1 extractEnv() Net primary productivity (OC3 model and Eppley-VGPM algorithm). Modelled product used to compute an estimate of the Net Primary Productivity (NPP). The model used is based on the standard vertically generalised production model (VGPM). The VGPM is a “chlorophyll-based” model that estimates net primary production from chlorophyll using a temperature-dependent description of chlorophyll-specific photosynthetic efficiency. For the VGPM, net primary production is a function of chlorophyll, available light, and the photosynthetic efficiency. The only difference between the Standard VGPM and the Eppley-VGPM is the temperature-dependent description of photosynthetic efficiencies, with the Eppley approach using an exponential function to account for variation in photosynthetic efficiencies due to photoacclimation. IMOS
moor_sea_temp Fixed sub-surface moorings hourly degrees Celcius extractMoor() Depth-integrated in-situ, hourly time-series measurements of sea temperature (degrees Celcius) at fixed mooring locations IMOS
moor_psal Fixed sub-surface moorings hourly psu extractMoor() Depth-integrated in-situ, hourly time-series measurements of salinity (psu) at fixed mooring locations IMOS
moor_ucur Fixed sub-surface moorings hourly ms-1 extractMoor() Depth-integrated in-situ, hourly time-series measurements of subsurface geostrophic current velocity in the east-west direction (ms-1) at fixed mooring locations IMOS
moor_vcur Fixed sub-surface moorings hourly ms-1 extractMoor() Depth-integrated in-situ, hourly time-series measurements of subsurface geostrophic current velocity in the north-south direction (ms-1) at fixed mooring locations IMOS


In this vignette we will explore accessing and integrating gridded data. A suite of additional functions can be used to access and extract in situ sub-surface data from moorings (see vignette('extractMoor')).


Usage of the extractEnv() function

Load example dataset

The primary function to extract and append remote sensing data to acoustic detection data is the extractEnv() function. Lets start with a dataset that has undergone quality control (see vignette('runQC')).

library(tidyverse)
library(raster)
library(ggspatial)

## Example dataset that has undergone quality control using the `runQC()` function
data("TownsvilleReefQC")

## Only retain detections flagged as 'valid' and 'likely valid' (Detection_QC 1 and 2)
qc_data <- 
  TownsvilleReefQC %>% 
  tidyr::unnest(cols = QC) %>%
  dplyr::ungroup() %>% 
  filter(Detection_QC %in% c(1,2))


Lets have a quick look at the spatial patterns in detection data:

qc_data %>% 
  group_by(transmitter_id, station_name, installation_name, receiver_deployment_longitude, receiver_deployment_latitude) %>% 
  summarise(num_det = n()) %>% 
  ggplot() +
  annotation_map_tile('cartolight') +
  geom_spatial_point(aes(x = receiver_deployment_longitude, y = receiver_deployment_latitude, 
                         size = num_det, color = installation_name), crs = 4326) +
  facet_wrap(~transmitter_id, ncol = 2) +
  labs(x = "Longitude", y = "Latitude", color = "Installation Name" , size = "Number of\nDetections") +
  theme_bw()


We can also have a look at the temporal pattern in detections:

qc_data %>% 
  mutate(date = as.Date(detection_datetime)) %>% 
  group_by(transmitter_id, date, installation_name) %>% 
  summarise(num_det = n()) %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = date, y = transmitter_id, color = installation_name, size = num_det)) +
  labs(x = "Date", y = NULL, color = "Installation Name", size = "Number of\nDetections") +
  geom_point() +
  theme_bw()


Environmental data extraction

In this example, we will extract two variables; Interpolated sea surface temperature and modeled ocean surface currents.

Each variable will need to be accessed one at a time using the extractEnv() function. There are a few parameters within the function that can help the user identify the variable required, and to manage the downloaded environmental layers:

  • df: the data frame with the detection data
  • X: the name of the column with longitude for each detection
  • Y: the name of the column with latitude for each detection
  • datetime: the name of the column with the date-timestamp for each detection
  • env_var: the name of the environmental variable to download and append (see imos_variables() for available variables and variable names)
  • cache_layers: should the extracted environmental data layers be cached within the working directory? If so, spatial layers will be cached within a folder called imos.cache within your working directory.
  • crop_layers: should the extracted environmental data be cropped to within the study site? reduces the file size of downloaded files
  • full_timeperiod: should environmental variables extracted for each day across full monitoring period, if set to TRUE it can be time and memory consuming for long projects
  • folder_name: name of folder within imos.cache where downloaded rasters should be saved. If none provided automatic folder names generated based on study extent
  • .parallel: should the function be run in parallel? speeds up environmental extraction for large datasets


Gap filling functionality

Remote sensed environmental data within coastal areas (where acoustic arrays are often deployed) are often unreliable due to shallow habitats and close proximity to turbid nearshore waters. The quality control process for Ocean colour variables within the IMOS dataset often remove pixels in close proximity to coastlines due to the low quality of environmental variables in these regions. Here is an example where coastal remote sensing data may not match up with positions of deployed acoustic arrays.

In these cases, a simple extraction will result in NAs where no overlap occurs (e.g., black points in the figure above). To maximise the understanding of environmental variables in the region of coastal arrays, extractEnv() provides the functionality to fill gaps in the extraction data using the fill_gaps parameter. If fill_gaps = TRUE, the function will extract the median variable values within a buffer around points that do not overlap data pixels (broken buffers around black points in the figure above). The radius of the buffer around the points that do not overlap data can be user defined (in meters) using the additional buffer parameter. If no buffer value is provided by the user, the function will automatically choose a buffer radius based on the resolution of environmental layer [5 km for rs_sst, rs_chl, rs_npp, rs_turbidity; 15 km for rs_sst_interpolated; 20 km for rs_current and rs_salinity].


Interpolated sea surface temperature

data_with_sst <- 
  extractEnv(df = qc_data,
             X = "receiver_deployment_longitude", 
             Y = "receiver_deployment_latitude", 
             datetime = "detection_datetime", 
             env_var = "rs_sst_interpolated",  ## Currently only a single variable can be called at a time
             cache_layers = TRUE,
             crop_layers = TRUE,
             fill_gaps = TRUE,
             full_timeperiod = FALSE,
             folder_name = "test",
             .parallel = TRUE)


Modeled ocean surface currents

We can now also append current data to this dataset:

data_with_sst_and_current <- 
  data_with_sst %>% 
  extractEnv(X = "receiver_deployment_longitude", 
             Y = "receiver_deployment_latitude", 
             datetime = "detection_datetime", 
             env_var = "rs_current", 
             cache_layers = TRUE,
             crop_layers = TRUE,
             fill_gaps = TRUE,
             full_timeperiod = FALSE,
             folder_name = "test",
             .parallel = TRUE)


As we set cache_layers to TRUE, the downloaded layers will be cached within the imos.cache folder within the working directory. Each time the function is called, downloaded layers are cached into this folder. We have also set the function to save the raster layers as the default .grd format within a subfolder called test.

When downloading current data, three variables are downloaded: Gridded Sea Level Anomaly (rs_gsla), surface geostrophic velocity in the north-south direction (rs_vcur) and the east-west direction (rs_ucur). These variables are used to calculate current velocity and bearing and appended to detections


Examining the appended environmental data

We can now see the extracted environmental variables are appended as new columns to the input dataset

data_with_sst_and_current
## # A tibble: 597 × 61
##    filename         transmitter_id  tag_id transmitter_deploy… tagging_project_…
##    <chr>            <chr>            <int>               <int> <chr>            
##  1 A69-9002-13807_… A69-9002-13807  6.99e7            69918684 Townsville Reefs 
##  2 A69-9002-13807_… A69-9002-13807  6.99e7            69918684 Townsville Reefs 
##  3 A69-9002-13807_… A69-9002-13807  6.99e7            69918684 Townsville Reefs 
##  4 A69-9002-13807_… A69-9002-13807  6.99e7            69918684 Townsville Reefs 
##  5 A69-9002-13807_… A69-9002-13807  6.99e7            69918684 Townsville Reefs 
##  6 A69-9002-13807_… A69-9002-13807  6.99e7            69918684 Townsville Reefs 
##  7 A69-9002-13807_… A69-9002-13807  6.99e7            69918684 Townsville Reefs 
##  8 A69-9002-13807_… A69-9002-13807  6.99e7            69918684 Townsville Reefs 
##  9 A69-9002-13807_… A69-9002-13807  6.99e7            69918684 Townsville Reefs 
## 10 A69-9002-13807_… A69-9002-13807  6.99e7            69918684 Townsville Reefs 
## # … with 587 more rows, and 56 more variables: species_common_name <chr>,
## #   species_scientific_name <chr>, CAAB_species_id <int>,
## #   WORMS_species_aphia_id <int>, animal_sex <chr>, detection_datetime <dttm>,
## #   receiver_deployment_longitude <dbl>, receiver_deployment_latitude <dbl>,
## #   receiver_project_name <chr>, installation_name <chr>, station_name <chr>,
## #   receiver_name <chr>, receiver_id <int>, receiver_deployment_id <dbl>,
## #   receiver_depth <dbl>, purchasing_organisation <chr>, …

We can also now add the variables to the detection plots:

summarised_data <-
  data_with_sst_and_current %>% 
  mutate(date = as.Date(detection_datetime)) %>% 
  group_by(transmitter_id, date) %>% 
  summarise(num_det = n(),
            mean_sst = mean(rs_sst_interpolated, na.rm = T),
            mean_current_velocity = mean(rs_current_velocity, na.rm = T),
            mean_current_bearing = mean(rs_current_bearing, na.rm = T))

ggplot(summarised_data, aes(x = date, y = transmitter_id, size = num_det, color = mean_sst)) +
  geom_point() +
  scale_color_viridis_c() +
  labs(subtitle = "Interpolated sea surface temperature", x = "Date", 
       y = NULL, color = "SST (˚C)", size = "Number of\nDetections") +
  theme_bw()

ggplot(summarised_data) +
  geom_point(aes(x = date, y = transmitter_id, color = mean_current_velocity,
                 size = num_det)) +
  geom_spoke(aes(x = date, y = transmitter_id, angle = mean_current_bearing, radius = mean_current_velocity),
             arrow = arrow(length = unit(0.05, 'inches')), color = "grey", lwd = 0.1) +
  labs(subtitle = "Direction and velocity of modeled surface currents", x = "Date", 
       y = NULL, color = "Current\nVelocity (ms-1)", size = "Number of\nDetections") +
  scale_color_viridis_c(option = "B") +
  theme_bw()



If the environmental layers were cached, we can also look at how the variables altered spatially:

## Detection data summary
det_summary <-
  qc_data %>% 
  group_by(station_name, lon = receiver_deployment_longitude, lat = receiver_deployment_latitude) %>% 
  summarise()

## Sea surface temperature
sst_raster <- stack("imos.cache/rs variables/test/rs_sst_interpolated.grd")

sst_df <- 
  as.data.frame(sst_raster[[1:12]], xy = T) %>% 
  pivot_longer(-c(1,2))

ggplot(sst_df) +
  geom_tile(aes(x, y, fill = value)) +
  scale_fill_viridis_c() +
  geom_point(data = det_summary, aes(x = lon, y = lat), size = 0.5, color = "red", inherit.aes = F) +
  labs(fill = "Interpolated\nSST (˚C)", x = "Longitude", y = "Latitude") +
  coord_equal() +
  facet_wrap(~name, nrow = 4) +
  theme_bw()


Current data can be plotted using other very useful libraries like the metR package.

## Current
library(metR)
library(sf)

## read in vcur and ucur spatial data
vcur_raster <- stack("imos.cache/rs variables/test/rs_vcur.grd")[[1:4]]
vcur_raster[is.na(values(vcur_raster))] <- 0
ucur_raster <- stack("imos.cache/rs variables/test/rs_ucur.grd")[[1:4]]
ucur_raster[is.na(values(ucur_raster))] <- 0

## calculate velocity (ms-1)
vel_raster <- sqrt(vcur_raster^2 + ucur_raster^2)

## extract values from raster stacks
uv <-
  as.data.frame(vcur_raster, xy = T) %>%
  pivot_longer(-c(1,2), names_to = "date", values_to = "v") %>% 
  left_join(as.data.frame(ucur_raster, xy = T) %>%
              pivot_longer(-c(1,2), names_to = "date", values_to = "u")) %>%
  left_join(as.data.frame(vel_raster, xy = T) %>%
              pivot_longer(-c(1,2), names_to = "date", values_to = "vel")) %>% 
  mutate(date = str_replace_all(str_sub(date, start = 2, end = 11), pattern = "[.]", replacement = "-"))

ggplot() +
  geom_contour_fill(data = uv, aes(x = x, y = y, z = vel, fill = stat(level)),
                    binwidth = 0.05, alpha = 0.7, inherit.aes = F) +
  geom_streamline(data = uv, skip = 0, size = 0.05, L = 1, res = 5, jitter = 5, lineend = "round",
                  aes(x = x, y = y, dx = u, dy = v), color = "white") +
  scale_fill_viridis_d(option = "B", name = "Current Velocity (m/s)") +
  geom_point(data = det_summary, aes(x = lon, y = lat), size = 0.5, color = "red", inherit.aes = F) +
  facet_wrap(~ date, nrow = 2) +
  labs(subtitle = "Modeled surface currents", x = "Longitude", y = "Latitude") +
  theme_bw()


Vignette version 0.0.3 (10 Oct 2021)